Beijing hotels in Xicheng

Cons: The rooms are on the smaller side; they definitely fall under the "boutique" category, but the bed and bathrooms were all very large and comfortable, so we didn't mind the lack of "common" space. You're not able to control the air conditioning, but we found the temperature comfortable. Bear in mind that, as an energy saving measure, you need a hotel key card to turn the power on in the room, so you can't, for instance, leave something charging all day while you're out.

Cons: - The dorm room was pretty bare bones. Nice aircon but it was strangely in the little sitting room rather than the sleeping area so had to really work to keep things cool. - Shared bathrooms were typical Chinese squat toilets. If you're not used to these and have trouble using them, you should find your way to some of the coffee shops on Qianmen Street that have western-style toilets. - Not much at all in the way of housekeeping once you're checked in. - The actual hutong the hotel is on is somewhat seedy - some weird sex shops and brothels along there. Didn't seem dangerous, really, but I'm not sure I'd want to bring a family down a street like that regularly.